North Charleston, S.C. – For once, the Paul campaign thinks Ron Paul got his fair shot during a debate.

“I think it was fair tonight,” says campaign chairman Jesse Benton. “CNN did a nice job. First question excluded — I don’t think any of us appreciated that question.”

Benton pushed back against Santorum’s rhetoric on the campaign trail earlier this week accusing Paul of not hitting Romney. “We have four different TV commercials calling Mitt Romney a flip-flopper that we’ve spent millions of dollars running,” Benton points out.

But he did acknowledge that the campaign viewed Romney as the most likely to remain in the race up until the convention – something that factors into the Paul’s campaign plan to win more delegates in Iowa. “We expect to take a substantial portion from the Iowa delegation, if not a majority. … I’m pretty sure we will come out with more delegates,” Benton comments.

“Mr. Santorum won’t be there,” he adds, “and we’ll be able to pick up several of those. We’re going to try to out-work Mitt Romney. So I’m confident we’re going to win the Iowa delegation, even though we took a close third place … on caucus night.”